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Collaboration, Co-design and The Art of Wellbeing

In April 2021 Rachel arrived at work to find a Post-it note on her desk; ‘Tracy from the Hospital called, they want some art for their walls. Could you ring back?’. She could, and did, and spoke to Clinical Project Manager Tracy Colpitts of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) who, apparently expecting disagreement, spent a good 40 minutes trying to convince Rachel just how important arts and creativity are to mental good health.

Neither of us, as professional artists and academics with specialties in participatory and socially-engaged practice, are quite used to someone trying to convince us about the fundamental link between arts and wellbeing. It was a new and delightfully refreshing experience, and one that has since led to a significant and ongoing collaboration between us, our Lincoln School of Creative Arts students, and the patients and staff of LPFT.

In 2021, the Trust’s £25 million ‘Eradication of Dormitories’ project at Lincoln County Hospital, was about to see the creation of two new Acute Mental Health inpatient wards to serve Lincoln and the wider region. The wards were to be built around two courtyards where, for the first time in the unit’s history, patients would be able to enjoy secure outdoor spaces without staff accompaniment. The LPFT team were aware that due to safety considerations, the courtyards were likely to be seen as sterile and institutional and so were looking for something permanent to enliven the spaces.

This was a complex brief already, with considerations around materials, security, safeguarding, patient wellbeing, student wellbeing, therapeutic benefits, mindfulness, recovery, and the quality of the art and creation experience all in the mix. We’ve since developed the work beyond the courtyards, and pulled on every bit of our expertise, professional practice, knowledge and research to set the conditions for a meaningful creative process as well as a high-quality end product.

Throughout the ward build, we’ve brought together patients, NHS staff, and BA Fine Art students in a collaboration that uses creativity to promote wellbeing, enhance recovery, and reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness.  We’ve called the project ‘The Art of Wellbeing’ and we’re trying to realise the possibilities that result from service users, healthcare providers, and arts experts working in genuine collaboration, on site, over a long-term period.

Some of Rachel’s participatory practice-as-research responds directly to the work of Professor of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Dr Rosemary Rizq’s identification of the ‘auditable surface’ (Risq, 2012), and considers how we might resist reducing experience into predefined quantifiable outcomes. Rachel’s work focusses on enhancing process and dialog to enhance wellbeing and recovery and explores collaborations that bring experienced artists together with communities to cocreate valuable experience as well as high-quality artwork.

Steve’s practice research bridges the fields of psychology, sociology, and architecture, applying thinking from these disciplines to the production of participatory art practice. Philosopher Lucy Huskinson’s bridging of psychoanalytical thought and architectural theory (Huskinson, 2018) currently provides a point of departure for Steve’s creation of frameworks for collaboration, that foster both health and wellbeing, and generate art.

The Art of Wellbeing reimagines the traditional short-term ‘artist-in-residence’ model, resisting predetermined participation outcomes to support non-hierarchical co-creation at every stage of the process. We’ve prioritised participant experience throughout, and the project has revealed multiple ways in which sustained creative interventions might support sustained wellbeing.

The project-to-date has produced new creative methodologies for working in complex spaces and clinical settings, including short-stay acute care units, and the creation of the co-designed art works – informed by principles of mindfulness – which have been permanently installed in the facility’s courtyards. The artworks were shortlisted for the national Design in Mental Health Awards 2024 ‘Art Installation of the Year’, with the NHS staff positively reporting ‘increased engagement with therapeutic spaces surrounding the art’, and how they use the design of the work itself to ‘initiate grounding techniques with patients, aiding faster de-escalation.’ This work has impacted close to 400 patients experiencing acute mental illness and is anticipated to reach 2000 more over the next 5 years.

The collaboration has also helped LPFT staff identify additional training needs requiring creative approaches, and we’ve led on the creation of a ‘walkable’ 3D Matterport model of the facility (supported by UKRI Innovate UK funding) with integrated information keyed directly to ward locations. Staff can now virtually explore the facility in advance of their arrival, enhancing their preparedness. We’re also looking to support LPFT in using the tool with incoming patients and their families – demystifying the interiors of the facility, combatting negative perceptions of mental health units.

Our students have also felt the impact of their inclusion in the work as both participants and artists. Mental illness statistics in Lincolnshire are comparable to the national average (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, 2022), but they are trending upwards. 75% of adult mental health conditions appear before the age of 24 (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2020), and nearly 21,000 children and young people in Lincolnshire are believed to have some form of mental health condition (Lincolnshire_Health_Intelligence_Hub, 2024). In this context, enabling students (predominantly aged 18-21) to apply their creative skills in mental health settings has proved to be of significant benefit. Our students reported feeling valued, increased confidence, and feeling more able to talk about their own mental health and understand the support available. 

This work is ongoing and we’re exploring additional avenues around resources for Occupational Therapy Teams, the use of art in secure de-escalation settings, and further co-design art projects elsewhere in the county.

The Art of Wellbeing sits at the meeting point of research, teaching, and meaningful community engagement and is having a transformative impact on the lives and communities of people here in Lincolnshire. Not bad for something that started with a Post-it note.

Rachel Baynton – Associate Professor & Creative Engagement Producer

Rachel Baynton is an artist, producer and academic working in cross-artform contexts. She leads on professional arts projects with national and international reach, with major commissioning partners including Arts Council England, the NHS, the RAF, and the BBC. Rachel is Co-artistic Director of Proto-type Theater – a company of multi-disciplinary artists making contemporary performance. Critics have called their work ‘smartly intelligent, coolly reasoned theatre’ (The Guardian) and ‘enthralling’ (Zambezi News). She is also a member of the Creative UK National Council and Associate Chair of UK New Artists, who support the development of early-career artists from diverse backgrounds.

Dr Steve Fossey – Associate Professor in Fine Art

Dr Steve Fossey is Associate Professor in Fine Art at the University of Lincoln. As a practitioner–researcher with over twenty years’ experience he has written, led and taught on programmes across the arts, and has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally including at Bristol’s Arnolfini, Tate Modern, and the PHI Foundation for Art in Canada. Steve specialises in participatory art, working across performance, sound, video, and art-writing, and his practice-as-research Ph.D. explored how site-specific performance can be used to rethink and create social space. He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, books and online platforms.